Everything That Is Wrong With The Kapil Sharma Show

Kapil Sharma has come a long way from being the winner of the Great Indian Laughter Challenge to hosting his own show and then moving to movies and then changing the channel of his show and blah blah blah hippity hoopla blah.

THIS ARTICLE IS STRICTLY NOT GOING TO DISCUSS HIS SUCCESS STORY.

Let’s not focus on where he did it with his comedy show but rather what he did on his show.

And trust me, it’s not as amazing as it sounds. It’s boring, bland, repetitive and downright stupid.

Now, I for one was a huge fan of Kapil Sharma for the fact that he started a rather funny show (Comedy Nights With Kapil, which is now titled The Kapil Sharma Show) with new gags and themes but sooner or later, I had a feeling that it would run out of ideas. And that’s exactly what happened.

One of the stills from “The Kapil Sharma Show”. Big celebs tend to find it the perfect place for film promotion.

The show is still a podium for the same old gags from when it started, be it the “Daadi” planting kisses on every male celebrity that enters or be it Kapil insulting his on-screen wife’s big lips. Like, bruh. Why?

Let’s try to vacuum this topic out of every controversy it has ever faced for its content and focus solely on logic. Which is very rare. Here are some questions to get you started :

#2. Why do random people come to dance on the stage with celebs and perhaps knowingly make an ass out of themselves?

#3. WHY ARE ALL MALE ACTORS DRESSED AS FEMALE CHARACTERS IN EVERY EPISODE?

The list is long and full of terrors.

“Thank you, my child. For helping me make a ton of money even after my cricketing and political career.”

Now, keeping my ranting aside, let’s analyse the show for what it’s supposed to be and for what it actually is.

The show is supposed to be a set-themed slapstick and sketch comedy show, right? Well, there’s a lot of slapstick but there is no comedy. All you get on your plate is a bunch of recycled jokes about perpetual poverty, huge lip size, drunkard old women, drunkard old men and so on and so forth.

Another thing that bothers me is that the show finds it appropriate to bring in any random good-looking and rather unknown actress on the set during their acts and then Kapil proceeds to flirt with her and make the audience cringe. WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT?!

Now, I’m not trying to advocate for the American and British comedy shows and neither am I trying to promote the coming-of-age Indian comedy houses like AIB, TVF, etc. but if mainstream comedy is liked by the people of this county so much, it is the duty of the artists and writers involved to at least make it tolerable and rather funny, to say the least.

As of now, Kapil’s show just works as an added promotional tool for celebrities and promote their movies via TV appearances.

The sole reason why Kapil’s show doesn’t have a large fan base in today’s urban teenagers or the folks who are in their early 20’s is its stagnancy. Using a tried and tested formula over and over again with different punchlines and calling it comedy.

Another reason for banality on the show is that most male actors on the show such as Kiku Sharda, Ali Azgar and Sunil Grover (who’s arguably the funniest on the show with his comic timing) is their portrayal of women on the show and furthermore, their mocking by Kapil Sharma.

Kiku Sharda and Sunil Grover have consistently played female characters on the show. This is a still from Kapil’s previous show on Colors TV.

Now, I’m not speaking from a feminist’s perspective but dude, sometimes these on-screen acts REALLY creep me out. Experimentation has been long disregarded from the show and the trend does not seem to stop.

If I may suggest, the show could definitely use some concepts to stay fresh such as celebrity comic acts (which have been made super popular in the West, thanks to the show Saturday Night Live) or real-time impromptu comedy which can not only allow experimentation on the stage but also allow the writers a moment of relief from writing the same old gags.

So, although the show will continue to rule in terms of numbers and ratings on national TV for now but yes, if it needs to expand or rather maintain its existing fan-base, new things should start popping out from its creative heads, soon.